Printer drivers are program modules for controlling a printer. In the case of causing a document to be printed from an application, the printer driver causes its own GUI (Graphical User Interface) to be displayed on a display unit. For example, in a common Windows (registered trademark) application, the application causes a Print dialog to be displayed in response to selection of the Print menu item of a File menu. Pressing a Property button in the Print dialog causes the GUI of a printer driver corresponding to a printer selected as a printing destination, that is, a Printer Property dialog, to be displayed.
It is preferable that a character string on the GUI of a printer driver, such as a Printer Property dialog, be displayed in a language suitable for a user the same as in other common applications. For example, it is convenient for users if displaying is performed in Japanese in an environment where users are Japanese and in English in an environment where users are English-speaking people. Accordingly, so-called “multi-language support” is provided in the conventional printer driver. (See, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2000-181650.)
Conventionally, however, common printer drivers are packaged and released on a language basis. Accordingly, if users of such printer drivers wish to use a printer driver in multiple languages, there is a problem in that as many installation operations of printer drivers as the number of languages should be performed. Further, there is also a problem in that printer drivers installed separately for respective languages appear to be printer drivers for different printers to an application although the printer drivers are for the same printer.
A printer driver in support of multiple languages (hereinafter referred to as “multi-language driver”) can solve such a problem. In a single installation of the multi-language driver, language-dependent files for multiple languages are installed. When a language to be used is selected after the installation, for example, at the time of printing, the language-dependent files to be used are switched in response to the selection, so that multiple languages can be used. Here, the language-dependent files include a resource file in which a character string displayed on a GUI is stored and a Help file.
In the case of the multi-language driver, however, the language-dependent files of languages that are not usually used are also loaded in their full sizes as they are into a storage medium such as a hard disk in a single installation, thus causing the problem of unnecessarily reducing available resources such as a storage medium.